Some
publications in France that tried to reveal the
truth were censored. Temps Modernes, the
magazine of Jean-Paul Sartre, the philosopher
and author, called the episode "a pogrom". Papon
had the edition seized.

MAURICE PAPON, the former
minister accused of deporting more than 1,500 Jews to Nazi
death camps during the war, is facing renewed allegations
about a further atrocity: the massacre of hundreds of
Algerians in the centre of Paris by police under his command
in the 1960s. Like the deportations that led to his trial
for crimes against humanity, the massacre has been covered
up for decades with the connivance of the French
establishment. But as Papon's appearance in court last week
forced France to confront the secrets of the wartime Vichy
government he served, claims about his role in the Paris
killings focused attention on another dark period in the
country's history.

In 1961, during the Algerian
war of independence, Papon, then chief of police, imposed a
curfew in the capital after the murder of 11 of his officers
by nationalists. The Algerian National Liberation Front
(FLN), which had orchestrated the attacks, responded by
organising a protest march. Up to 40,000 Algerians answered
the call to demonstrate on the night of October 17. What
happened next has never been established precisely. The
official version was that three people died in clashes
between police and demonstrators. At a cabinet meeting
afterwards, President Charles de Gaulle described the deaths
as a matter of "secondary" concern, by comparison with a
resolution of the Algerian crisis. The reality, according to
Constantin Melnik, an adviser on police matters to the then
prime minister Michel Debre, was that at least 200 - and
probably closer to 300 - people were slaughtered by Papon's
police, who were intent on avenging the deaths of their
colleagues. His claim is supported by demonstrators,
observers and police officers.

The recollections of Saad
Ouazene, a 29-year-old foundry worker and FLN organiser at
the time, are among the most vivid. "We told the workers to
descend on Paris, but we didn't know what was waiting for
us. People flooded into the city," he said. At the crowded
exit to the Concorde Metro station, police began striking
people over the head with clubs. Ouazene's skull was
fractured. "I saw people collapse in pools of blood. Some
were beaten to death," he said. "The bodies were thrown onto
lorries and tossed into the Seine from the Pont de la
Concorde. If I hadn't been strong I'd never have got out
alive. "Daniel Mermet, a French radio presenter who watched
the protest at another bridge, said: "The demonstrators were
charged by the police and everybody ran. I saw a guy climb
over the parapet of the bridge and try to hide. A cop
spotted him and started laying into him. A second policeman
joined in, and they beat him until he fell into the water
like a stone." Similar scenes occurred at other points
around the city.

According to a number of
shocked policemen, an estimated 50 people were killed in the
courtyard of the Paris police headquarters alone. Joseph
Gommenginger, who was on duty, said: "As Algerians got out
of the buses at the Porte de Versailles, they were clubbed
over the head." He appealed to a senior officer to stop the
brutality. The officer "just turned his back on me", he
said. "Those carrying out the attacks even threatened me.
They had all removed their numbers from their uniforms. I
was revolted. I never thought police could do such things.
We were supposed to be guardians of the peace. "Police
records show that Papon told officers at one station that
they must be "subversive" in the war against their
opponents. "You will be covered, I give you my word," he
said. In the days following the massacre, dozens of bodies
were taken from the Seine as far down river as
Rouen.

Jean-Luc Einaudi, a historian
specialising in the period, is convinced that Papon was
directly and personally responsible for the events. "He was
in overall charge of the operation. He was on the scene, and
later in the command post," Einaudi said. Papon
requisitioned transport authority buses - a measure that had
last been adopted for the round-up of Jews under the Vichy -
Einaudi claimed. When the buses were returned, he said, they
were covered in blood. Attempts to bring the massacre to
public attention were largely stifled at the time. Some
publications that tried to reveal the truth were censored.
Temps Modernes, the magazine of Jean-Paul Sartre, the
philosopher and author, called the episode a pogrom. Papon
had the edition seized.

As recently as October last
year, on the 35th anniversary of the massacre, copies of the
Algerian daily Liberte
- which examined Papon's role in the slaughter, were
confiscated by customs officers at Lyons airport. The
interior minister who ordered the seizure was Jean-Louis
Debre, the son of the former prime minister. At a city
council meeting 10 days after the massacre, direct questions
put to Papon went unanswered. "The Parisian police did what
they had to do," was his only comment. When the issue was
raised in the National Assembly and the Senate, political
pressure was brought to bear to ensure that no official
inquiry was held. "For this to happen in a country like
France, which suffered the brutality of Nazism, is a
national disgrace," said Hachemi Cherhabil, an Algerian
mechanic who was also at the demonstration. "They reproduced
the same behaviour. I don't accuse the French people".

But some officers acted the
same way as Nazis. "Some believe the killings were an
attempt to destabilise secret negotiations between the Paris
government and the Algerian nationalists by those who wanted
Algeria to remain a French colony. Veronique Carrion-Bastok,
a Socialist deputy, has written to Lionel Jospin, the prime
minister, urging his government to recognise the
responsibility of the French state for the massacre. "I want
to lift the amnesia which surrounds this affair," she said.
"Papon did not act alone - he had the tacit approval of the
government of the day." Carrion-Bastok has also demanded
that the official archives relating to the episode be opened
to historians. Failing this,she feared Papon, 87, who was
granted bail for his trial in Bordeaux after treatment for a
heart ailment last week, may take the secrets of October 17,
1961, to his grave.